names and throat

2nd day of school and I have nearly all of my student's names down. I spent a few minutes at the end of class going through each of them. Tomorrow we'll play the "Blanket Name Game," where the students hold up a blanket in front of me and I have to guess the name of the students on the other side of that blanket as soon as it is dropped. I did excellent at that game last year and I have every intention of doing great again this year.

My major problem of the day is my throat. My voice is sexy/raspy (hahaha), but mostly my throat KILLS. It's worse than a regular sore throat. I'm putting myself on a no talking policy for the remainder of the day. Hopefully tomorrow my talking will be cut to a minimum with kids working on assignments most of the class period. Any suggestions for a non-strep-like sore throat??

I learned last year that it's easier to be a strict hard @$$ at the beginning of the year, rather than at the middle or end. I've been quite firm with my expectations and I think I have a few kids convinced that one toe out of line is unacceptable. It's nice though because they're following all instructions, being responsive to my requests, and my chatty problems of yesterday became a thing of the past today, especially in 6th period. The good thing is that they all seem to "get" the idea of my Bell Work Procedure (no talking, wait for my instructions, etc.) My attention bell mentioned yesterday is such a great management tool. Tap that bell, wait 5 seconds and they're all ears.

I'm getting the newspaper and yearbook staff pumped to get started--they all asked today if they could type up a story. I will assign staff positions by the end of next week. They all seem really responsible and excited so I'm looking forward to another good experience.

I know I've mentioned this before, but what's the deal with crazy, weird, and challenging names. I have a few students who are from Bosnia, India, and Pakistan. Their names are very difficult: Dzenis (which I originally thought was Denis, but in reality it is pronounced "Janeece"), Acea (which I originally pronounced with a hard K sound, but it's literally Ace-A), and my most challenging, Uranus. I figured this was pronounced like the planet (and I thought, wow, how embarrassing), but she corrected me and told me it is pronounced Urna. Odd. It may take me a while to get the hang of some of these crazy names!!